Drexel

Function

Academic curriculum

Industry

Education

Qlik Product

QlikView

Achievements

1 month to develop applications for curriculum

Drexel University uses Qlik to equip students with data analytics skills

With approximately 26,000 students, Drexel University is one of
America’s 15 largest private universities and ranks among the top
100 in the United States. Data analytics and visualization has become a hot topic at the university’s LeBow College of Business, gaining attention from both students and their potential employers.

Dr. Bay Arinze, a professor of Management Information Systems at LeBow College of Business at Drexel, educates students on the importance of data analytics and discovery with hands-on courses
and curriculum. His goal is to prepare students to influence decision-making, strategy and operations with fact-based insights and an in-depth understanding of business performance analysis.

“Right now, we are working on significantly growing our data
analytics program,” Dr. Arinze said. “We are looking to deliver
many types of certificates and degree programs in the field, and
students’ interest in data visualization is increasing. We are also
putting pressure on faculty to teach more courses on the topic.”

Qlik goes to the head of the class

Since the LeBow College of Business was in need of a visualization solution to complement this evolving trend and support more impactful course curriculums, Dr. Arinze applied to the Qlik Academic Program. This program provides free licenses and training resources to accredited programs enabling students to experience user-driven BI solutions from Qlik in a college or university-supported curriculum.

Dr. Arinze had previously used Qlik in his work with the Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia and saw the power of the Qlik associative experience first-hand when it unlocked hidden data insights. He also noted the Qlik rankings in key analyst reports such as the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

Visualizing the future of business

Within a month of obtaining the Qlik licenses, Dr. Arinze had developed multiple Qlik applications — as well as a comprehensive curriculum around the product. The course first introduces students to business intelligence and the power of the Qlik solution. Then the course actively engages students to gain actual insights from data by using applications and visualizations.

Each quarter, students are tasked with finding interesting data sets and creating dashboards to glean important insights about a company or industry. In one assignment, for example, the students were asked to visualize data on nutrition, physical activity and obesity for the U.S. population.

“Building up a Qlik knowledge base enables our students to excel in data analytics in the real world. Qlik is a great mechanism to teach our students the value of data exploration so that they can make smart business decisions in the future,” Arinze said.

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